Bay Bridge suicides feared / New span to have wide walkway with railings some say are too low

Published 4:00 am, Saturday, March 11, 2006

Bay Bridge suicides feared / New span to have wide walkway with railings some say are too low

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Mental health advocates, encouraged by Friday's decision to study plans for a suicide barrier for the Golden Gate Bridge, fear that the Bay Area could be building a new magnet for despondent people to leap to their deaths -- the eastern span of the Bay Bridge.

The original span has no legal pathways for pedestrians or bicyclists, but the $6.3 billion replacement bridge, which is expected to open in 2013, will include such access on its southern edge, stretching from Oakland to Yerba Buena Island. The 15 1/2-foot-wide path will feature expansive views of the bay and areas for bicyclists and walkers to enjoy them.

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Its railings will be 4 feet, 7 inches tall -- high enough to prevent people from taking accidental tumbles into the bay but surmountable for people intent on jumping to their death.

Dr. Mel Blaustein, head of psychiatry at St. Francis Hospital and president of the Psychiatric Foundation of Northern California, who has been active in the struggle for a Golden Gate barrier, is taking aim at the new Bay Bridge and has asked Caltrans officials to consider raising the Bay Bridge railings to 6 feet tall.

So far, Caltrans is sticking to its position that the 55-inch railing is safe and conforms to state and federal standards.

"They're doing the same stupid thing they did with the Golden Gate Bridge," which has 4-foot-high railings, Blaustein said. "This is the time to fix it."

The design of the new Bay Bridge span was selected in an unusual public process, and the bicycle and pedestrian path was the result of much lobbying from bicyclists and pedestrian advocates. But while the railing height was discussed, the emphasis was on providing "a sense of comfort" for people, said San Francisco architect John Kriken, vice chairman of a committee of engineers and architects that helped select the bridge design.

"We didn't discuss whether people could climb over," he said. "Suicide was not discussed."

The gray steel Bay Bridge has never shared the Golden Gate's fame or its appeal to those wanting to commit suicide. While officials carefully count jumpers from the Golden Gate, it's difficult to find anyone who similarly tracks Bay Bridge suicides.

Meyer estimates that three or four people leap to their deaths from the Bay Bridge each year, compared with an average of 19 a year on the Golden Gate. Everyone agrees that the Bay Bridge is a much rarer choice for a final destination.

Whether that would change with the opening of the pedestrian and bicycle path on the Bay Bridge or the installation of a barrier on the Golden Gate Bridge is less certain. In other cities where barriers were erected on bridges popular with suicide, nearby bridges did not become suicide magnets, Meyer said, citing the Duke Ellington Bridge in Washington, D.C., where a barrier went up in 1986.

But people who commit suicide often choose to jump because it's easy, said Blaustein -- "You don't need a gun, drugs or a car." So providing a spacious walkway with panoramic views could attract more suicidal people, he said.

Blaustein outlined his case for higher Bay Bridge railings in a Dec. 2 letter to Caltrans Director Will Kempton.

"We have learned from the Golden Gate Bridge that suicide is often an impulsive response to overwhelming hurt, pain or loss," he wrote, arguing that barriers have been effective in suicide prevention at such previous magnets as the Empire State Building and the Eiffel Tower.

"Raising the height of the handrail would be a significant safety measure at almost no expense," he concluded.

Bijan Sartipi, Caltrans' district director for the Bay Area, replied to the letter, saying that the height of the railing was set after discussions with "interested parties" who expressed "a clear desire for maximizing views from the bridge." Some of those parties, he said, favored a lower barrier offering better vistas.

"The department believes that the facility as designed is safe for use," he said, adding that officials will closely monitor use of the bicycle and pedestrian path and address any problems.

Donald MacDonald, a San Francisco architect who helped design the new eastern span, including the pedestrian and bike path, said the railings stand 7 inches taller than those on the Golden Gate "and are a little harder to jump over. But anyone hell-bent on jumping could do it," he said.

But architect Kriken said there's a difference between the proven lure of the Golden Gate and the potential attraction of the Bay Bridge -- and a larger issue to consider.

"Whatever that magnetism that creates that attraction (on the Golden Gate Bridge), I don't think it exists in a comparable way (on the Bay Bridge) such that you would want to build a fence along that side of the bridge," he said.

"If we were to take care of all of the life-threatening circumstances of the public environment, we'd be walking around in a padded cell. We might take a look at the Golden Gate Bridge and decide there is some kind of attraction there that can be fixed, but I don't think we want to fence off everything that could possibly be a place someone might commit suicide."

With the exception of Blaustein's letters to Caltrans, there is no active campaign for a suicide barrier for the new Bay Bridge.

The steel platform that will carry bikes and pedestrians is being bolted onto the concrete skyway section of the new bridge, and the 55-inch-tall railings are being fabricated, said Andy Fremier, deputy executive director of the Bay Area Toll Authority, which is overseeing construction of the new span.

"At this point," he said, "there are no plans to change the design."

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